There are so many interesting people in the Digital Marketing industry here in New Zealand, and Amar Trivedi is definitely one of my favourites.

I met Amar in August last year, and ever since then, we have remained great friends. Amar has always been so supportive of everything digital that I do – especially on social media and in content marketing, – and he has turned out to be a great mentor.

Tagging along two of my buddies, Nasreen and Nikhil, we got to hang out with Amar and got some valuable digital marketing tidbits!

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He used to call himself a Social Media Executive, or a Social Media Coordinator, or a Social Media Consultant. But now, he just wants people to know him as “Solutions Guy”.

‘What does that even mean?’ you might wonder. Amar went on straight to explain that he strives to embody just 5 key words: Serve, Solve, Share, Support, and Simplify.

You are not smarter than your customers

Having worked as a social media and content marketing professional for years now is definitely proof that he truly enjoys what he does. “The joy and power of social media is the transparency and openness” of all the online conversations that are happening in real-time. He sees delight in directly being involved with customers; in interacting with them daily; and in learning from them day in and day out.

As we all know, no two customers are the same – similar, yes, but not the same. This is where customer intelligence comes in. We’ve all heard about business intelligence before, but all that’s changed now that we live in a digitally-enhanced, customer-focused era. “The most powerful marketing force is customer intelligence. You cannot be smarter than your customers. So learn from them.”

Digital is a Lifestyle

Amar also mentioned a very important insight that we may not have realised yet, and that is that digital is a lifestyle. It’s not just marketing that’s gone digital. It’s the way we actually live our lives now.

It’s how we buy something.
It’s how we study and learn.
It’s how we entertain ourselves.
It’s how we consume media.

There is simply no escaping the digital world. And the best thing to do? Embrace it!

We need to be on top of technology.
We have to keep up, so we don’t get left behind.
We have to evolve.
We have to make digital our lifestyle.

Customer Experience helps you stand out

Bringing together customer intelligence and a digital lifestyle means that brands need to stand out to ‘stay in’. Amar believes that good ideas, good content and good communication are key to staying relevant. And let’s not forget about the human touch, where relationships form. To him, all these make up what is known as customer experience(CX), which is essentially what builds brands. With technology as an enabler, a more engaged, vibrant and responsive community is created, in turn making a better overall omni-channel experience.

And who wouldn’t agree? It’s the experiences we have with brands that make them remarkable and memorable.

Learn. Constantly.

In the digital marketing industry, we all have to remember that we need to continuously and constantly learn. Knowing something now is not the be all and end all. As Amar’s mentioned, we have to embrace digital as a lifestyle – a constantly evolving one.

His tips? Keep in touch with the news and with what’s current, and read, read, read! Especially for those looking into a career in social media, you must always be updated, as social media becomes outdated in 6 months (or less).

Amar also pointed out that the times have shifted in terms of learning. Because our digitally-led lives change so quickly, we now must do and then learn. It is by doing that we learn to monitor and measure results, and it is through these results that we learn to innovate.

I could not agree more with all that Amar has shared and I truly hope that this piece helps inspire digital marketers to push for excellence in customer experiences and in their own personal and professional development.

The digital industry is definitely an unending mountain to climb, but as long as we remember to always evolve and to make digital a lifestyle, then we’ll always be ready to take on anything that comes our way.